Dominique Cornu no longer required by Skil-Shimano

Dominique Cornu has not had his contract extended by Skil-Shimano and so faces the prospect of hunting for a new team for 2011. The former under-23 World and Belgian time trial champion is no longer required after just one season with the Dutch team.

“The team is not confident enough that Cornu will make the expected sporting progress in its ranks next season,” the team’s statement reads.

Before joining Skil-Shimano Cornu was with the Quick Step team, also for just one season; previously he had been with Silence-Lotto and Bodysol-Win for Life-Jong Vlaanderen for two seasons each.

The team’s assertation that the 25-year-old is not likely to make sporting progress is an interesting one, since he is the third best-ranked Skil-Shimano rider this season. Cornu took one of the team’s two stage wins at the Tour of Belgium, in the Herzele time trial, and finished the race in second place overall; he went one better than his third place of 2009 and taking the young riders’ jersey.

Other notable results from the Belgian this year were fourth place in his national championships and ninth overall in the Eneco Tour of Benelux. He represented Belgium in the recent World Trial Championships in Geelong, Australia, but slumped to a disappointing 35th place.

Cornu himself is not bothered by his team’s rejection as, according to Sporza, he is already in negotiations elsewhere.

“With which team I can’t say,” he said. “I wanted to look elsewhere in any case. I would like to ride a bigger programme next year.

“Is a ProTour team a must?” he continued. “That’s true, but I don’t want to give anything else away; I don’t want to blow the negotiations.”